By entering the autumn, the shell of the crayfish becomes harder and the meat becomes hard and chewy. So the best time for crayfish (summer) is over, now it is the time for crab!

The crab Shanghainese love is called Hairy Crab, which is  from the fresh water (lake or river), not the sea. So it is much smaller than the sea crabs. Those crabs usually have hairs on their crawls as its name indicated.

Hairy Crab

If you go to those famous food streets in Shanghai, such as Shouning Road, you will find lots of shops changed crayfish to hairy crabs.

What's after the crayfish! Spciy Hairy Crab!

 I believe hairy crab is kind of iconic food for Shanghai. If you have lived in Shanghai or talked to some local Shanghainese, you will know how much Shanghainese love it which doesn’t happen in other parts of China. I still don’t know why!

Some foreigners may wonder why Shanghainese love this small, scary, extremely hard to eat creature (breaking the shell for very very little meat). 

It is because XIAN (pronunced like Sheeanne), which means very nice taste. It tastes tender, a bit sweet, full of crab meat flavour, especially during the autumn, the hairy crab has lots of roe which tastes really rich.

Whenever talking about hairy crab, the first place people say would be Yangcheng Lake, where is believed to have the best water and best living environment for best crabs. That is why you will see long queues on the road from Shanghai to Yangcheng Lake every weekend for crab feast in recent days.

But  Yangcheng Lake can supply that much crabs for all the people in Shanghai, China or even worldwide? Of course not!

Most crabs in Shanghai wet markets or supermarkets are actually from other lakes, for example, Tai Lakenear Suzhou or Wuxi. To be honest, if you are not a crab master, I don’t think most people can tell the differences.

I had my first crab of this year last weekend. I bought it from my local wet market. The owner told me it was from Tai Lake.

The price of the crab largely depends on its size, the bigger, the higher. The one I bought cost me 18RMB each weighing about 160g. Of course, the market had all sizes crabs, you can pay 5RMB for the smallest or around 100RMB for as big as 200g. Some supermarkets even have much more expensive crabs which are claimed from Yangcheng Lake. For example, 300RMB for a 200g crab. I just think it is crazy to pay that much for just a crab!

OK, the simplest way to cook it is to steam it. After the water boiled, put the crab into the steam for about 15 minutes and it is done!

Simplest way to cook Hairy Crabs is to steam it

Shanghainese usually eat with dipping rice vinegar and chopped ginger. The vinegar and ginger are believed to take the fishy smell. It is also good if you drink a bit Shanghai wine because Chinese medicine believes that crabs are cold for stomach. Wine can help balance it.

The crab usually eat with chopped ginger and rice vinegar dipping sauce

More Related Entries Search Below

Tags: Eating in Shanghai

• Ask Hoo questions and mail to:cookhoo@gmail.com Or Subscribe to our RSS feed:

• Click to bookmark our site or tell a friend: